12 



THE OSPREY. 



OSPREY SITTING. 

 (Photographed from mounted specimen by Paul Bartsch.) 



PANDION. 



Synonymy. 



Pandion Savigny Desc. de l'Egypte: Hist. 



Nat.. I, Ire partie (incl. Syst. des Oiseanx 



de l'Egypte), p. 95. 1809.* 

 Triorches Leach Svst. Cat. Mam., etc. Brit. 



Mus., p. 10, 1816. 

 Balbusardus Fleming Hist. Brit. Animals, p. 51, 



1828. 

 Falco sp. Linne and old Authors. 



Head rather large, with very convex forehead, 

 and with rather long erectile feathers behind. 



Kves approximated to the beak, almost level 

 with the head [ a lleur de tOte], 



Beak quite large, nearly straight at its base, 

 swollen dorsally; cere lobed below the nostrils, 

 very short, hispid; nostrils lunulate, oblique, 

 nearly longitudinal, the base of their aperture 

 patulous and the upper border membranous and 

 very thin; /nicer mandible at the base relieved 

 by a feeble crest. 



Mouth scarcely split to the anterior ang'le of 

 the eye. 



Tongue oblong, quite wide toward its tip, 

 simply rounded below, its surface almost smooth 

 above and its tip thick and entire. 



Tibiae with densely appressed soft short 

 feathers not extending to the tarsal joints. 



Tarsi very robust and reticulated, being fur- 

 nished on both faces with prominent hard small 

 scales [the anterior largest] which are imbri- 

 cate from above downwards on the anterior sur- 

 face and from below upwards on the posterior. 



Toes large, rough to the touch, entirely desti- 

 tute of membrane; the middle little larger than 

 the lateral; the outer larger than the inner and 

 readily versatile backwards. 



Claws equal, very large, very sharp-pointed, 

 [approximately] semi-circular, all rounded and 

 smooth below; that of the middle [toe] never- 

 theless with a saillant ridge along its inner 

 [lower] side. 



Wings very long and extending beyond the 

 tail; with five emarginated primaries; the first 

 scarcely larger than the fifth and both much 

 shorter than the three intervening; the third 

 longest. 



Tail [subtruncate or slightly convex] compos- 

 ed of [nearly] even feathers; [outermost shorter]. 



*As the reference here given to Savigny's work differs from some authors' it may be well to explain that the first volume 

 of the "Description de 1 Egypte" devoted to Natural History (Histoire Naturelle, Tome premier' is composed of four parts, each 

 separately paged. The fust part ("premiere partie") has contributions from Geoffroy Saint Hilaire (father and son). 

 Savigny and Audou n The other parts are a'so by S.u igny w ith explanations of plates by Audouin. The only ornithological 

 contributions are in the first and third parts (1, iv, p. I \v 1 1 j; I . i. p. 251-324). The only pages on which Pandion is described are 

 on I. i. p. 95-97 The misleading date of the entire volume is r8i g 



Some at least of the contributions apparently were also issued with special pagination and title pages. Thus the refer- 

 ence to page 35 by Prof( ssm Newton would correspond with page 95 of the entire part if we add a title to represent pages 1 

 and 2 of the separate. 



The reference to page 272 by Dr. Sharpe is not reconcilable with any fact known to the writer. (The 8vo edition is not 

 accessible 



See also Sherbom's article on Savigny's work (P. Z. S. 1897, pp. 283-2S8). 



